MTA MAKES HEADWAY, BUT MORE STILL NEEDED.

Byline: Hal Bernson LOCAL VIEW

TEN years ago, Los Angeles County entered a new era in transportation with the creation of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Born out of the idea that you and I would be better served with planning and operation functions under one roof, we said goodbye to the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and the Southern California Rapid Transit District and hello to MTA.

Charged with keeping the county, its people and goods moving, it is clear a decade later that MTA is succeeding on many fronts.

Los Angeles County is complex, so our problems often demand complex solutions.

Unlike most other U.S. urban areas, we travel from points far and wide to multiple destinations that also are spread apart. Home to 10 million residents and 6 million vehicles, the county also is one of the world's major destination points and distributors of freight.

As difficult as our challenges are, MTA has set about addressing them with innovative solutions.

MTA has created the nation's largest carpool lane network, a system that is expanding to give a growing number of drivers a timesaving option to driving alone. In the most congested portions of the county's urban core, 67 million passengers per year have made Metro Rail their transit choice.

The Metro Bus system carries 367 million passengers annually and in 2000 MTA launched Metro Rapid, one of the most successful bus transit innovations in recent U.S. transit history.

On its two inaugural corridors, Metro Rapid has succeeded in increasing bus ridership by 40 percent. Incredibly, one-third of the increase is made up of people who never before have ridden public transit.

In 1993, MTA made a commitment to the use of alternative fuels and in less than a decade has purchased nearly 2,000 buses that operate on compressed natural gas, or CNG, making MTA North America's leader in the operation of CNG buses.

MTA is responsible for improving the mobility not just of people, but also of goods throughout Los Angeles County and beyond.

The agency contributed $347 million to the $2.4 billion Alameda Corridor project, a 20-mile railroad expressway that speeds the flow of freight traffic from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles through Los Angeles County and the cities of Vernon, Huntington Park, South Gate, Lynwood, Compton, Carson and Los Angeles.

Operating below ground primarily on Alameda Street, the Alameda Corridor has eliminated the at-grade bottlenecks that once plagued cross traffic.

MTA realizes that Los Angeles County cannot build its way out of congestion. Instead, to keep pace with the growth in traffic congestion we must make better use of the infrastructure already in place.

As a result, MTA funds projects, such as signal synchronization projects, aimed at improving the flow of traffic on our existing streets.

Key to delivering on MTA's promise to improve the movement of people and goods is forging consensus among transportation stakeholders and increasing the availability of state and federal transportation dollars to turn consensus into solutions.

In November of last year, MTA and the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce joined forces to sponsor the first annual Mobility 21 transportation summit. Mobility 21's assembly of elected officials, transportation providers, business, labor and community leaders planted the seeds for developing practical solutions to the county's transportation issues and ensuring significant increases in transportation funding in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

During its first decade, MTA made great strides in dealing with the issues that face us, but success cannot be measured by a single event, nor can innovation. Instead, success and innovation are environments produced by tireless effort.

Like you and I, the 9,000 men and women who make up MTA must navigate the streets and freeways of Los Angeles County every day, so they, too, have a huge stake in keeping the county moving. As we begin our second decade, look to MTA for the solutions that will make Los Angeles County the livable place we all envision. MTA looks to you for support.